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Friday, August 19, 2016

So this is the second song from “…Like Clockwork” on the list. I’ve mentioned in my other entry “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” at no. 38 that this album was a very slow burner for me. The whole album is so dark, so different and, frankly, difficult to get into. When I think of QOTSA I think of fantastic and imaginative riffs, boppy hard rock tracks and on occasion some fun but always in a clever way. Yet this song, this album generally is so moody, so sluggish and takes a real effort to take in. But once you do, if you’re willing to give it that chance and not treat it like every other QOTSA you’ll be rewarded big time.

“If I Had a Tail” for me epitomises this album. Sure it’s Queens. You can hear Josh Homme’s very distinctive vocals, those guitars sound familiar. But it barely hits second gear, it drags along all the way to the end. But the beauty behind the song is the claws that are dug in to make things slow; it’s got some real teeth and there’s a real density to the song that few Queens track have. And that’s saying something because generally Queens songs are full of flavour and depth. Josh Homme’s howling at the end of the song are both haunting and beautiful. The way the song ends almost abruptly feels like a tease because you almost wish you were being dragged further despite it being a difficult ride. It’s just a great song that has an unexpected bite to it and I love it.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

For me this was one of the biggest surprises in recent times. Not that Crazy Town would do a new album nearly 13 years away, but that I’d actually like another song by Crazy Town. “Butterfly” was a great yet silly song back in 2001 and then they practically disappeared. But this is a surprisingly good song by the band. Seriously. If you liked “Butterfly” and like the rap rock tracks and the nu-metal tracks from the early noughties then seriously give it a listen.

I actually heard this song from an unlikely source in TNA Wrestling. They changed the theme of the show to this song back in the start of 2015 and liked the sound of it. When I did research on what it was I never expected to find out that it was Crazy Town. So yeah, a welcome surprise and yes, it’s that good for it to be considered in my Top 25 favourite singles of the half decade, for sure.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Yep, one of the biggest songs of 2012 gets a massive thumbs up from me. If you’ve been following my work on this website over the years you might get the impression that I like to predict what songs will be considered to be the “greats” when we look back on them in decades to come. This is one of those songs. For me, “Thrift Shop” is going to be considered to be an absolute classic in around 10 years time. I have very little doubt about it. It’s just lyrically, musically and stylistically on point throughout and the video is great too. There’s not much more to really say about this song, because unless you’ve been under a rock for the last four years, you’ve heard this song before and know all you need to know about it.

Friday, August 12, 2016

So before “The Hunter” became a big hit for this, still, relatively underappreciated band they released “Hey” as their first single off what was to be their first album, “Are You Satisfied?”. It serves as a corner for the band musically and stylistically; their first EP was very raw (hell, the album is too, but the EP is, well, rawer than raw if that’s even possible) and lacked any polish whatsoever. “Hey” was really the first time you could see some layer of production, even if it was just a little bit. Regardless of that, it’s still a heck of a brilliant garage punk rock track and I love it so much. This song often ends their live performances because of the bridge towards the end of the song. “Do you think that’s where it starts, this is where it’s gonna end” gets repeated over and over again live quite a lot of the time. This is one of the heaviest Slaves songs and if you’re a fan of the screaming, the heavy punk rock side of the band, then get your friends to listen to this track rather than “The Hunter” because it really shows some qualities the band have that not everyone is aware of.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

If you follow my work either in a DJ form or a website form you’ll know that this song was my #1 most played song in the whole year of 2014. It’s funny though because it’s not my favourite song by the Arctic Monkeys nor is it even my favourite song off the album AM, we’ll get to that later.But what this is, is a tremendously catchy song. I can’t put into words how catchy it is, or at least, how catchy I found it a couple of years ago. At one point the song just got played over and over and over again, hence it being my most played song and the #1 song in my Mercyside 100 in 2014. I heard it a lot initially when it was on the BBC Radio 2 cycle and then just developed into my own cycle of songs not long after. I just love this song, but as I said, not as much as another song by the band higher up on the list obviously.

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

So my favourite single by KoRn in this five year period we’re covering is the first single off the experiment dubstep/metal album, The Path of Totality. I can’t believe this album is five years old now. Anyhoo, so while this was the first single off the album, it wasn’t the “main” single, that honour goes to “Narcissistic Cannibal” which you may remember got to #61 on this list. For me though, this is a far stronger song, not only does it sound heavier than “Narcissistic Cannibal”, but I also think the dubstep sounds better too. I’ve never personally understood why the other song was either promoted more, or “preferred” per se, but nevermind. If there’s one song in my opinion that you need to listen to when it comes to the very debatable dubstep/metal album by KoRn, it’s this one. I personally loved that album, but it’s really one of those things – you need to hear it yourself to make your own judgement on it.

Monday, August 08, 2016

I may have said this before but I’ll say it again – goddammit Jamie N make an album! Enough of these EPs, I want a full length album that you can focus 10-12 high quality tracks towards and produce a piece of brilliance that will get everyone talking and expand your reputation as an excellent songwriter and musician!

You may or may not be familiar with Jamie N Commons, you may have heard that “Jungle” song a few years back, especially the remix of it featuring Jay-Z. It was a collaboration between Jamie N Commons and the X-Ambassadors. It’s the most famous song really Jamie N Commons has done but he’s also done some fantastic tracks over the years. In my eyes he’s far better than, say, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and George Ezra, similar artists in the genre. And “Karma” really is a strong track to get into, if you’re not familiar with him. His voice is just gold here and the song itself is quite strong musically so it’s a good combination; a lot of his songs concentrate more on his great vocals so may put off certain people who like a bit of bang to go in the background with these type of singers. I don’t know what to say other than – listen to this man if you haven’t before, you may be missing out on a new favourite singer songwriter!

Sunday, August 07, 2016

Album: How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence

The most recent Mindless Self Indulgence album for me was underwhelming. It lacks a lot of the punch that previous albums had, and also felt overall a lot, I dunno, softer perhaps? Compared to their previous stuff. I also felt that they lacked in ideas somewhat.

What we have here in "It Gets Worse" however is pretty much like a "best of MSI" in one track. It has their tasteless, funny and silly lyrics that are going to be misinterpreted by the wrong people, it has their really cool and unique electronic/metal/punk hybrid sound and most importantly it's as catchy as hell.

Mindless Self Indulgence for me last decade were a band that I thought were going places. They honestly sound like no one else on the planet. I don't know if it was complacency, going in the "wrong" direction in targeting emo and post punk teenagers as their nuance audience or just that they're too unique that they just can't get enough mainstream attention. But I was wrong when I predicted them to be one of the bands to look out for in this decade, last decade. That's a shame, because they're still an excellent band and if you've not heard them before, this is definitely a key track to get started with.

Saturday, August 06, 2016

So four songs ago we featured Serj Tankian’s “Figure it Out” – two very different songs with the same title. It’s funny but it was hard to say which song I preferred too, they’re both great in incredibly different ways. This has definitely been my favourite Royal Blood song thus far. For a while I didn’t understand what the hype was about this band; everyone went crazy over them and it took me a while to “get” what it was that apparently made them special. And believe it or not this was probably the third or fourth song by them I had heard, despite it now being their most famous song and has been in quite a few adverts and soundtracks now as well. What attracted me to the song was the end of the song, the track generally didn’t excite me much on the first few listens but as soon as that outro riff hits and those drums connect towards the end, it’s just musical bliss – so much in fact that I actually think the outro ends too soon! Not long after I just really fell in love with this song, it’s an excellent track.

Friday, August 05, 2016

Note: Yes it's been a while since I've updated this list. There's many reasons why but I can't be bothered going into it. Either way, enjoy the continuation of my Top 100 Favourite Music Singles between 2010 and 2014!#32. "Days Are Forgotten" – Kasabian

Released: 12/8/11

Album: Velociraptor!

So the highest up ranked song by Kasabian on this list is this cracker. This was the main single off their fourth album, and got to no 28 in the charts. Truth be told, there are other songs by Kasabian that I prefer to the three singles on this list, particularly off the “Velociraptor!” album, which, for me, is their best effort. But that’s taking nothing away from “Days Are Forgotten”, which is everything great about Kasabian; a catchy riff, a simple and easy sing-a- long chorus and some fantastic howling in the background throughout, you know, just for kicks. It’s a belter track.